Can News Corp. win its game of chicken with Google?
The rumors are true. Rupert Murdoch is taking News Corp. content out of Google search.
The media mogul set off a storm last week when he responded to a question about opting-out from Google with the words "I think we will."
And today, News Corp.'s chief digital officer confirmed it. News Corp. content will be off of Google search within the next few months.
But is this a game of chicken that News Corp. can win?
The A-Z of conversion rate optimisation
E-commerce professionals tend to obsess about conversion rates and how to optimise them. Why? Because a tiny increase in conversion rates can generate millions in additional sales for large retailers, so it’s obviously worth throwing resources at ongoing optimisation strategies.
A lot of the basics are obvious. Selling online is about being relevant, removing distractions, and having a clear proposition. It’s about having a competitive price and a trustworthy brand. By testing and experimenting these things you can boost conversion rates.
What else is there? Well, I’ve compiled an A-to-Z of conversion rate optimisation for your viewing pleasure, along with a bunch of links to further reading. Hopefully this will help you to boost sales at your firm.
Google's new global ads represent a shift. Just not in search.
For a company that has long relied on word of mouth to promote its products — Google has been going crazy with advertising lately. This summer the company launched an old school ad campaign, complete with billboard and print ads, to promote its cloud-based apps business. And now the company is announcing that its "Going Google" billboard campaign will be going global, with more print, online and outdoor ads promoting the Google suite of office products.
Tom Oliveri, director of enterprise marketing at Google, tells The New York Times this will be “one of the most visible Google has done and the most significant campaign for the enterprise side.” The company is also looking to hire two big marketing titles.
Is the this notoriously anti-marketing company changing its tune on advertising? Maybe. But not because of changes in the search business.
The holiday season looks bright for search, Bing, and a few others
Advertising spend may not explode this holiday season, but some marketers will have reason to celebrate — namely those working in search.
Display has been getting a lot of attention lately, with brands like Google stepping up their presence in the area, but search is still looking like the reliable choice for the holiday season. And if someone in particular has reason to be excited this season, it's the people working at Bing.
Is Adobe's $1.8bn acquisition of Omniture setting up a big e-commerce play?
If M&A activity is a good indicator of the health of the economy, there's hope for a recovery, at least in tech. Newsworthy acquisitions are becoming more frequent and yesterday saw a billion-dollar deal with Adobe's announcement that it is purchasing business optimization software provider Omniture.
The deal, which is valued at $1.8bn, was hailed by Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen as "a game changer for both Adobe and our customers". And it better be, as Adobe's offer of $21.50 per share for Omniture stock represents a 24% premium to Omniture's closing price on Tuesday.
Microsoft's new 'visual search' is good for advertisers
Microsoft Corp. is testing out a new way to search select topics by retreiving visual results instead of text. A list of about 50 popular categories now return image results.
From The AP:
"Bing's new visual search page lets people flip through pictures to track down where and when a popular movie is playing, read up on baseball players or shop for items like digital cameras."
At launch, the visual search option only works on a few topics, but it's a great move for brands. For starters, the new search option is designed with advertisers in mind.
The 5 things Twitter must do to avoid #fail
How popular is Twitter? It's so popular that some would suggest it's worth billions of dollars. But as many of us who lived through the first .com bust know all too well, it's disappointingly easy to take something that looks like it has a future filled with success and turn it into fail.
In the case of Twitter, I think there are 5 things that the company's management needs to do to avoid that fate.
Twitter goes local. And paves the way for geotargeted ads.
Twitter may already be everywhere, but it's about to know where you are. The microblogging service announced today a new feature that will make it location aware for users.
Twitter is developing an API that will allow third-party platforms like Tweetdeck and Tweetie to indentify users' latitude and longitude. Eventually it will be an opt-in option on Twitter itself. And that means local advertising cannot be far off.
Bing finds success by borrowing from existing niche searches. A little too closely.
Microsoft is hard at work trying to compete with Google on search. The company has invested billions in research and advertising for its new search engine Bing. Not to mention the year long effort to get access to Yahoo's search business, which resulted in a deal penned last week.
But will Bing make progress in its fight against Google? Much of its search growth has been made at the expense of Yahoo to date. Now that the two are working together, will it continue to grow its search influence?
It looks like the key to Bing's success is also a major weakness: incremental advances on existing search technology.
Google takes to the highways in its fight against Microsoft Office
For a company that makes the bulk of its revenues from advertising, Google is particularly shy about advertising itself. But starting today, the search giant is launching an offline campaign gunning for Microsoft's office applications business.
Not only is Google going after Microsoft customers where they are, the company is embracing a variety of low tech methods to do so.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
